Tell Me What the Rain Knows
by elvenrarehunter
Summary: The rain falls in little rivulets, leaving paths on the window. On the other side are reflections, but they are not her own. Rated 4 Safety. First TMM fic so be nice. R&R No Flames Please. The characters will be slightly OOC bc I am not that far in the ma
1. Masquerade

_This is a result of reading Tokyo Mew Mew on Halloween Weekend while doing homework and preparing to watch Van Helsing. Yeah, this is my first TMM fic, so please be gentle. I've only read the first 2 books and I'm using the American/English names. Enjoy. _

* * *

**Masquerade **

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Zakuro sat by the window, watching the rain fall down the glass in little rivulets. She traced one's path with her finger, sighing as it reached the bottom. There were no Kirema Animas as of yet, which wasn't necessarily such a bad thing on such a gloomy day. The sun was fading over the tops of the buildings of Tokyo, giving way to the dark sky that glittered with stars. Zakuro looked through the window, seeing through her reflection. Her hair was put up like wolf ears, her gloves coming all the way up to her elbow. She wore a metallic silver dress, which hovered just above the floor as she walked, giving the illusion she was floating.

She sighed a second time and got up, brushing down the long skirt that she was wearing. She wasn't quite sure how Ichigo and the others had managed to do it, but they were taking her to a masquerade ball. She smoothed out the wrinkles that had appeared and walked to the door, slipping on her wolf mask. She picked up her coat and pulled the collar up around her face. Of all the days she could have forgotten her raincoat at the studio, she chose the day it was raining and wasn't open. She walked out the door and was bombarded by falling raindrops. She was unaware of how it happened, but suddenly, the rain was no longer hitting her, as someone had given her an umbrella. She watched a young man in a suit walking in front of her. She cocked her head. A complete stranger gave her his umbrella? What's more, he didn't care he was getting wet? She stayed behind him the entire time, even entering after him as they reached the mansion. She walked through the door to see Ichigo and the others. Pudding, in her short brown dress and monkey mask and tail, was the first to notice her.

"Zakuro!" she called. Zakuro walked over, her eyes darting about for another glimpse of the stranger. After all, she had to give him his umbrella back.

"I don't know how you managed to bring me here," she said. Ichigo sighed.

"You're an animal that live in a pack. How can you not want to be around people?" she pointed out, walking over. Her pink dress fell all the way to the floor and swept out behind her. It looked like it was made for someone twice as tall as she. Around her neck was the same bell Masaya had given her, and her mask was that of a cat.

"The young will leave the pack to start their own," Zakuro said. Mint looked at her. Mint's costume was probably the best out of all of them. She wore the same aqua-green dress, though it went to the floor, and she (or rather, someone) had taken the time to make dark wings that protruded from her back. Her mask extended into a beak.

"That's kind of close to the truth," Lettuce said contemplatively. Lettuce wore a simple green dress. Her mask was plain green, no animal. Zakuro nodded. Slowly, the girls were being picked up by boys who asked them if they wanted to dance. Ichigo had taken up Masaya's offer. Lettuce had been swept away by Keiichurou and was currently dancing with him. Ryou had taken Mint away. Even Pudding had found someone her own age to dance with. Zakuro was left leaning against the wall. She was looking down. The bottom of her dress was wet, but that was okay.

A gloved hand appeared in her view. She looked up, following the arm to the masked face that was looking at her. His face was tan with black marks painted on. His mask was pure white, though his emerald colored eyes shown through with a playful light. She looked at him for a moment.

"Care to dance?" he asked. She looked around. They were the only two without a partner. She would rather do anything but, though she accepted the hand and allowed him to lead her onto the dance floor. They quickly fell into step with the rest of the dancers. She had no need to concentrate on where she was supposed to step, for she knew the steps and her partner was leading her with great accuracy, a misstep here or there.

"So, you got here in one piece?" he asked. She looked a bit startled. She didn't even know who he was.

"Why do you ask?" she returned.

"Because someone as sweet as you would melt in the rain," he said. A pale pink rose to her cheeks, quickly disappearing.

"You were the one that loaned me the umbrella, weren't you?" she asked. He smiled.

"I thought that was you," he said. She prevented a smile from rising to her lips. He was someone she would probably never see again in her life, so she didn't want to get too attached.

"It's over by the door when you are ready to leave," she said. He nodded. Zakuro let the music wash over her and, without realizing it, began to move closer to him. The song was drawing to a close. As the last wavering note ended, there was a bang and what sounded like a roar, accompanied by the shattering of glass. Everyone looked toward the window, where there was a large wildcat recovering from the surprise that had greeted him when he jumped through the window. Zakuro let go of the young man and ran towards Ichigo and the others.

"We've gotta do something," Ichigo yelled. They moved out of sight and transformed. They jumped out again.

"Ribbon Mint Echo!" shouted Mint, aiming for the wildcat. The wildcat roared and stopped the attack in its tracks. Mint looked a bit shocked. How could it stop her attack? Ichigo was a bit confused, but wasted no time moving into an attack position.

"Ribbon Strawberry Check!" she yelled, once again hurling an attack at the beast. The cat once again roared and reflected the attack back at her. She just barely dodged it and was beginning to lose balance. Zakuro steadied her and got ready to launch an attack at it in a split second.

"Ribbon—" she started, but the wildcat roared and launched itself at her, knocking her to the ground and coming dangerously close to her throat with its claws.

"Ribbon Tiger SLASH!" came a male voice, a blur of claws knocking the cat away. The cat got up and shook itself off, getting ready to attack again. It launched itself at the male.

"Ribbon Fox Cunning!" came another cry. The wildcat fell to the ground, its claws piercing Zakuro's skin. Blood rose to her pale skin and began to fall down her arm. The male looked at her apologetically and walked over to the two other girls. One had the appearance of a fox, the other, the appearance of a cheetah. Ichigo stood up, Mint and Pudding getting in position to protect her. Lettuce was inspecting the cut on Zakuro's arm.

"Who are you?" she asked. The cheetah looked at her and walked over, towering over the cat.

"Look, kitty, we're not here to play games. We're here on a mission. You would do well to stay out of our way," she said, looking over at the male, who was inspecting the corpse of the cat. He picked something up and pocketed it, jumping up and out the window at the top. He was followed by the fox-girl. The cheetah girl swished her tail impatiently, before leaving as well. Lettuce gave a squeal of surprise and they turned around.

Zakuro was gone.

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_Well? Constructive criticism is welcome, but please don't flame me. I know the characters are probably OOC, but please give me some credit for attempting to keep them in character. As you can tell, this is going to be Zakuro centric. Please tell me what you think._

_And to all, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!_


	2. New Students

_Alright, here I am. Sorry about the long update. And there will be a little bit of explanation at the end of the chapter. Now to:_

**Kisshuluver**: Yeah, well, I needed one of them to go away…

**bledding black rose**: (_blushes_) Thank you. I'm glad that it doesn't matter much to you whether my characters are OOC b/c a lot of people do care and it's good to know that people are ok with it. BTW, I still love your story.

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**Chapter 2: New Students **

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Zakuro woke up from what must have been a drug induced sleep. She shook her head to clear it and gazed about her. She was in a room, she knew not where. It was Spartan accommodations, but it was good enough for her. After all, she hoped she wasn't staying here for too long. As the haze from her sleep began to fade, she felt a dull throbbing in her arm. She was beginning to vaguely remember battle and the wildcat scratching her. She fingered the spot and felt something course beneath her fingers. She looked down curiously to see a bandage tied, stained a light red. A knock came at the door. Zakuro looked over toward the door. 

"Come in," she said. The door opened to reveal the cheetah girl, who smirked at her.

"So, Sleeping Beauty has finally awakened," she said. Zakuro frowned.

"Why did you bring me here?" she demanded. The cheetah girl put her hands up in a way to suggest innocence.

"I had nothing to do with it," she said. At this point, another girl sauntered into the room, the fox girl.

"Fear not, we will send you home," she said, smiling warmly at Zakuro. The cheetah girl nodded and crossed her arms over her chest.

"But not before we get some answers."

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Keiichiro was at the computer database in the basement of the Tokyo Café, trying desperately to locate the lost Mew. He had been working for hours, but he couldn't manage to pinpoint the signal from the DNA. Perhaps she was in an area of interference and the signal couldn't be broadcasted. Keiichiro was getting worried. 

"God knows where she is and if she's alright," he said aloud. Footsteps behind him caused him to stop working and look over his shoulder. Ryou stood there, a slightly worried expression on his face.

"Any luck?" he asked. Keiichiro shook his head.

"I'm picking up signals from every dog in the city and not the wolf I'm looking for," he said. Ryou looked a little more than worried at this.

"Should we send the Mews?" he asked.

"That may not be a bad idea," Keiichiro said. Ryou nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Keiichiro to his futile attempts at locating the Mew.

Ryou walked up to the café portion just as the aforementioned Mew walked into the courtyard. Well, stumbled was more like it. She sat down in one of the chairs as Lettuce and the others came running.

"Zakuro!" Pudding squealed.

"Are you alright?" Mint asked.

"How's your arm," Lettuce asked.

"Give her some air!" Ichigo demanded. All the girls sat down around the table. Ryou came over and knelt down next to Zakuro.

"What happened?" he asked. She looked at him blankly. "What happened to you?" he asked again. She continued to stare at him blankly.

"I don't remember," she said slowly, as if raking her memory for something.

"Zakuro, tell me what happened," Ryou said. Her blank look turned into one of anger.

"I told you I can't remember!" she snapped, getting up and turning out of the café. Ryou grabbed her arm to stop her but she whirled around. "I have homework and we have school tomorrow, let me be!" She broke out of his grasp and stalked off. Ryou watched her retreating back and shook his head.

"She'll be fine by tomorrow," he told himself.

* * *

Zakuro sat at her dining room table doing her homework, tapping the pen against her cheek as she pondered the question. She sighed and looked at the clock. The face read midnight. She yawned. She hadn't realized that she was up so late. She got up and stretched, walking away from her incomplete essay. After all, there was always lunch right?

* * *

Zakuro was sitting in homeroom with a hand over her mouth as she yawned. She was too tired to function this early in the morning. She had her essay in front of her and she was attempting to work on it, but no words were going onto the page. She didn't even realize someone was talking to her until there was a knock on the desk. She looked up. Standing there was a young man her a couple of years older than herself. 

"Can I sit here?" he asked, pointing to the empty desk next to her. She shrugged.

"Nobody sits there that I know of and I don't care," she said. He sat down and Zakuro sighed. He looked over.

"Something wrong?" he asked. She shrugged.

"I have an essay due and I have no clue what I'm doing," she said. She wasn't entirely sure why she was telling this to a kid about three years older than her. Yeah, like he would help her. He inched his desk closer.

"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at her paper. She looked at him a bit strangely.

"We have to describe how setting and tone influences a story and what effect foreshadowing has on the reader. I've got how setting influences it, but not tone or foreshadowing," she answered. He nodded. He was about to say something but the bell rang. He smiled and got up.

"What time do you have lunch?"

"Around 1 o'clock," she answered.

"See ya then," he said before disappearing into a crowd of people leaving the room. Zakuro walked to her first class of the day, computer. She walked in and looked around. There was a girl at the computer next to hers that she had never before seen. She sat down and logged in.

"You new here?" she asked. The girl turned to look at her.

"Who me? Yeah," she said, smiling amiably back at her. "Me and my family moved from Australia," she continued.

"Really? You don't have the accent I'd expect you to have," Zakuro said. The girl giggled.

"Yeah, I just didn't develop it," she said. "Though sometimes a bit of Aussie lingo gets into my speech. The name's Reiname, but you can call me Rei."

"Zakuro." She turned to her computer screen and started typing. Not taking her eyes off the screen, she began to talk to her again after a few minutes of awkward silence. "Do you have a brother?" she asked.

"Yeah, he's cool. His name's Ridge," she said. Zakuro nodded her head. "And you?"

"What?"

"You have any siblings?"

"No, I'm an only child," Zakuro said. After awhile, the bell rang and the day went on regularly until lunchtime.

* * *

Zakuro spotted Rei walking away from her and hurried to catch up. She Rei on the shoulder and she turned around. 

"Hey" Zakuro said. The girl gave her a once over.

"And 'oo the 'ell are you, mate?" she asked. Zakuro looked at her.

"Zakuro?" Said person turned around.

"Rei?" she asked. The aforementioned person smiled warmly.

"Glad to see you've met my sister," Rei said. She stood next to the other girl. They looked exactly alike, but in personalities, they were as different as night and day.

"Oh," Zakuro said. They began to walk out onto the grassy hill where they could eat lunch. There was the boy from Zakuro's homeroom. He patted the grass next to him.

"Still need help with that essay?" he asked. She nodded.

"I got a little bit done," she said. The other girl scoffed.

"Ridge, why ya helpin' freshmen?" she asked.

"It's called common courtesy, Rith. You should try it sometime," he returned. She folded her arms across her chest as Ridge returned to helping Zakuro with her essay. By some miracle, they managed to get the entire thing done by the end of lunch. The bell rang and they got up, Ridge rustling Zakuro's hair. "See ya 'round," he said. Zakuro smiled.

"Hope so," she said. Little did she know that there was a set of eyes watching them.

* * *

Night was falling as Zakuro stared out her window, looking at the stars in the far distant sky. She changed her focus to look at her reflection in the window. Trouble was, it wasn't hers…

* * *

_OK, here are a couple of points that I thought I'd clear up._

_1) Ridge, Rith, and Rei are triplets. They were all born and bred in Australia. Ridge and Rei like to try to refrain from using the accent, but Rith (though she can cover it up) chooses not to cover it up._

_2) Ridge, Rith, and Rei are seniors. I read somewhere that Zakuro was in 9th grade and so that would make her a freshman. _

_Any other points you would like me to clear up, let me know in a review. Constructive criticism and kind reviews are welcomed. No flames please. Please let me know what you think._


End file.
